In order for new learning to happen, you often have to clear out and challenge beliefs and preconceived notion. One very interesting way to do this is a pre-test. I found this one which is really good. The trick here is to forgot about the topic but rather see how the simple test challenges your beliefs and that you may know this already.

This site measures the reading level of your blog. I read a lot of posts that my only response is “huh?” Having a hire reading level doesn’t mean that it’s more intelligent or better written. It just means you’re using larger words and more complex sentence structures. If you’re writing to be read, I’d keep you’re writing at a 8th to 12th grade level.

I’m often asked what should be a passing grade on a test? Is it 65, 75, or 85%? I think the real question should be if I don’t get 100% does it matter? Here’s the situation. You go to the doctor tomorrow. You find out that he got 90% right on all his tests in medical school. Not bad but do you have to hope you don’t have the other 10%. How about the pilot who know 85% of everything you need to know about landing a plane? Feel better?

If something is critical and you need to know it, than anything short of 100% isn’t good enough. If it isn’t critical and you don’t need to know it, why is it on the test? Maybe, so you have enough questions. I often see in call centers that how people do on the knowledge tests have very little to do with their performance on the job. Partly becuase on the job you need quick recall and the ability to do two or three other things at the same time.

In many cases, I like to replace paper and pencil testing with direct observation by an expert. They tend to know what to look for and can do the assessment very quickly.

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This blog is focused on anything related to learning faster. From time to time, I'll be posting about my book Learning Paths: Increase profits by reducing the time it takes to get up-to-speed (Pfeiffer 2004).
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